Egypt Moves to Eradicate Town Near Gaza Strip

CAIRO — Egypt began evacuating hundreds of families from a town bordering the Gaza Strip on Thursday after a senior official acknowledged that the military was eradicating the town in order to complete a security zone abutting the Palestinian territory.

The military began bulldozing the border town, Rafah, several months ago as part of a sweeping response to repeated militant attacks on Egyptian security personnel in the Sinai Peninsula. After evacuating hundreds of families and clearing an area stretching 500 yards from the border, the authorities announced in November that they were doubling the size of the security zone.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Abdel Fattah Harhoor, the governor of North Sinai, said the zone would include “the entire city of Rafah,” according to a video of his remarks carried by the BBC.

“So the city of Rafah that we know will cease to exist?” a journalist asked him.

“No, the new Rafah city will exist,” the governor replied, referring to plans to start new construction in the area.

The government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has justified its drastic counterterrorism measures in the Sinai Peninsula, including the razing of Rafah, as necessary to deter the smuggling of weapons and militants across the border. The scale of the military campaign, including the demolition of hundreds of homes and the evacuation of more than 2,200 families, has also highlighted the Egyptian government’s increasingly firm view of the Gaza Strip as hostile territory.

Many residents of Rafah complained bitterly about their treatment by the authorities. The initial evacuations came with little warning, they said, adding that they had faced shortages of housing in nearby towns and delays in receiving compensation for their lost homes.

Palestinians in Gaza, with their borders controlled by Israel and Egypt, say the security zone leaves them more isolated and bereft of the smuggling tunnels that had provided their only outlet to the world.

It has also put Palestinians desperate to escape Gaza in greater peril. Last week, Palestinian officials said, a 16-year-old boy was killed by Egyptian soldiers as he and his friends tried to cross into Egypt, possibly to buy cigarettes to sell in Gaza.

Correction:

An article on Friday about the Egyptian government’s destruction of a town on the border of the Gaza Strip as the government expanded a security zone there misidentified the source of the attacks that led to the decision to begin bulldozing the town. The attacks were by militants, not by the military.

Merna Thomas contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A6 of the New York edition with the headline: Egypt Moves to Eradicate Town Near Gaza Strip. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe